One of the tenets of gardening (indoors and out) is to create contrast between plants that are near each other. Diversity draws attention! You can create contrast with the color or with the shape of the leaves. And size creates contrast (like combining tall plants with shorter plants). But one of my favorite ways to create contrast is by using plants with textural leaves.

Texture is both tactile and visual. And one of the most textural plants in the trending plant palette is Monstera Peru (also known as Monstera Green Galaxy or Monstera karstenianum). Monstera fans (oh my, there are a lot of you -- just check out #MonsteraMonday on Instagram) are obsessed with this big-leafed plant. The name Monstera comes from the Latin word for "monstrous" or "abnormal." And most members of the Monstera family have large smooth leaves with large holes or fenestrations. 

And that’s why Monstera Peru in the Trending Tropicals® collection is causing such a stir. Monstera Peru features lovely, large, rigid textural leaves that are almost puckered and corrugated. And to gild the lily, the leaves have a beautiful sheen, an iridescence.  

The good news for Monstera aficionados is that Peru is as simple to grow as other Monsteras. Easy. Like pothos-and-philodendron easy. 

Monstera Peru is versatile too. It’s sold with a nice mounding shape, but its young growth habit reveals magical things to come. As it matures, it travels. Add it to a hanging basket or set it on a shelf and it will drape. It’s also a climber. So if you can add a totem or trellis to its pot, it will grab on and hoist itself skyward. It can climb or cascade more than 6 feet indoors.

Find Monstera Peru in our Trending Tropicals® collection online or at your favorite local garden center. Check out a list of our retailer partners.

Written by Karen Weir-Jimerson